Blaze has out-stayed her welcome

I never thought that it would come to this. We are looking for a new home, for Blaze-the wonder-pup. It is not even a full year of owning her, and she has sealed her own fate by being expelled from casa-de-mine.

Blaze is a great dog, don't get me wrong. She is just TOO MUCH dog, and we can't handle her. She has been through puppy school 1 and 1/2 times, and does not grasp the concept of certain commands. And when you repromand her, she all but laughes at you and defies you even more. She still has the habit of mouthing, and jumping but with Ida in the house, we can't afford to have Blaze knock her down. (As it is, Ida fell and fractured her foot two weeks ago.)

There are alot of mixed emotions in our house. We want to keep her so badly, as we love her. But on the other hand she is making us go mad. When she is go, she is a great dog. But when she is bad, she is satanic. We even thought about getting a smaller dog (as we DO want a dog) but she has us so exhausted, that we've opted not to go that route.

Back to school with Blaze-MaGoo

I've had it.Blaze-the-wonder-pup has evolved in to Blaze-the-pup-from-hell. I can honestly say that I like her, and most of the times like having her. But I can also honestly say that I do not love her. If you ask Ida, she would say that I was being unfair. Because Ida loves having Blaze in the house for security (so do we all, for the most part.) But I have never thought that having a puppy would be THIS difficult.
When we had gotten Blaze, she was a 10-wek old ball of fur, and a joy to carry around. She sure grew fast, and at just about 11 months old weighs close to 60 pounds. Which is understandable, being that she is a mix of Sheppard/colli/rotti. From what my vet told em, full grown she'll be anywhere from 75-95 pounds which was more dog than we really had hoped for. At 12-weeks old, Blaze participated in an 8 week training course at PetSmart. We had had our ups and downs during puppy school, but when she had graduated, seemed to really be on the right track. Or so we thought.
Since she graduated, Blaze has regressed (partly my fault) to not listening to her commands, or when I do try to practice her commands she will partake for a bit...and then go in to 'play-mode'. The only commands that she listens to are: sit....and when on the leash (only) let's go, and leave it. Off the leash....forget it. She gives you a look which simply says: 'what do you mean 'leave it'? I have no idea what you're trying to tell me.' Want her to stay? that never happens. EVER. But her two major points of disobiedance are her continuous jumping, and her mouthing. Both of which she should have outgrown by now. Or at least learned to control with the commands given her.
Before I went on vacation, I was at PetSmart, and talked to the trainer. Because you know...PetSmart has the satisfaction gaurenteed cause on their training program. SHA-RIGHT. The trainer tried to rope me in to shelling out another $250. for either a private lesson, OR the next set of classes. They were not willing to honor their gaurentee. So I've let Blaze off the school hook for awhile. But regardless of Ida's stance on Blaze doesn't need any more training...she's going back.
Last night I decided to take Blaze to get her nails clipped, and she was making me look like Freddy Cruger was coming after me. So instead of throwing her in my car, decided to walk her the two miles (so as to tire her out) to the store, and not give the (cute) shop worker a hard time. Yeah, my plan DID NOT go off without a hitch, as I intended. In fact last nights nail clipping included: me straddling the dog to keep her still, my holding her down, John (the shop worker) wrestling with her to clip her nails and inadvertantly touching my boob. BLAZE NIPPING John's hand HARD....and us then muzzling her and restraining her with a choker thing around her neck. John said it was no big deal, about him being nipped...but I knew he was hurt, and I was mortified.
After all was said and done, I bought some treats for her (as they clip nails for free), AND I gave John tip due to feeling guilty over his injury we walked home, with me reaking like dog. Oh Blaze was as happy as a pig-in-shit on the way home. But my mind is made up. Blaze is going back to school, because this is just wrong. And honestly, I can't see owning this dog who is so unruly.And really she is a good dog....she's just thick-headed. So as of Thursday, August 30th Blaze will be in a six-week program, (which is costing me $100.) at PETCO...where the pets go. Hopefully it will do the trick this time. Because if it doesn't Blaze will be in the dog house for sure.

Blaze the Wonder Pup GRADUATES Puppy School

Blaze graduated from Puppy school this past Saturday. The graduation cap was not my twisted idea of cuteness, but the instructors. Blaze had to perform several tasks without fault, which she did rather well, except for one. One task is loose leash walking, where there may be something distracting (such as goodies) on the floor, and Blaze had to walk past it without touching it. Well as we walked past, she stopped and snapped one up, much to mine and Sam (the trainer’s) dismay. SO being the ‘hard-ass’ that I am, I said to Blaze:

“You drop that right now. DROP IT….pleh….pleh.” She didn’t spit it out, but she relaxed her jaws for me to remove it from her mouth. Sam was amazed that Blaze allowed me to remove the treat from her mouth, stating that her own dogs would never have given it up like that. Then I informed her that Blaze and I would walk past these treats several times, which we did, both WITH Blaze ignoring the treats on the floor, and SAM CHUCKING treats at her.

And Blaze passed puppy school. She is a real dog. :-) We are all so proud of her.

But now what do I do with my Saturday mornings???